Workforce Optimization Manager

About the role

As the Retail Workforce Optimization Manager, you will work as part of the US Retail Operations Team and collaborate with the wider labor planning team. This team is responsible for the deployment and utilization of labor across Primark stores in the United States. You will work closely with the US Retail Leadership Team to optimize and evolve labor planning capabilities, embedding best practices for forecasting and scheduling in the Workforce Management System (UKG). This role serves as the subject matter expert on Workforce Management for the market and involves working with senior stakeholders in Retail to optimize Primark’s largest budget.

The role focuses on identifying opportunities to deploy labor hours more effectively, ensuring better outcomes for customers by placing the right people, in the right place, at the right time, working on the right tasks.

Responsibilities

• Utilize the UKG Workforce Management System to optimize scheduling and ensure labor hours are prioritized toward high-value, customer-facing tasks.
• Maintain and configure all UKG system parameters, ensuring accuracy and consistency across all stores.
• Support the country in its correct use of UKG, ensuring appropriate configuration and resolving store-specific rostering, scheduling, and payroll-closing issues.
• Act as the primary business partner to the SVP, Retail and the Heads of Sales on workforce planning topics.
• Work with the central (Dublin-based) labor planning team to continuously refine and optimize the labor model, identifying productivity improvements and shifting hours away from low-value tasks.
• Monitor and analyze the “shape of day” to assess how labor hours are distributed across key trading periods and provide regular reporting on required adjustments.
• Understand the country’s individual scheduling rules and processes, identifying solutions to optimize the objective of having the “right person, right place, right task” within the country rule set.
• Provide detailed quarterly alignment updates, assessing how well stores align to recommended labor deployment and identifying improvement actions.
• Support the delivery of key projects that impact store processes and associated labor to ensure stores can understand and plan for changes to ways of working.
• Prepare and deliver senior-level presentations and progress updates to retail leaders, translating insights into actionable recommendations.
• Identify when region-level, area-level, or store-level interventions are required, and prepare detailed breakdowns, content, and business cases to support approval, in conjunction with commercial finance business partners.
• Leverage hands-on retail leadership experience to guide pragmatic productivity improvements at the store level.
• Demonstrate independence of thought and approach, using data to challenge retail leaders, where appropriate, to take required actions to improve optimal spending of the labor budget.

Requirements

• Minimum 4 years of experience in a similar role within a retail organization; previous store manager experience is a plus.
• Strong understanding of in-store retail processes across all aspects of store operations.
• Detailed understanding of current store labor planning processes, including forecasting, scheduling, and in-day deployment and management of labor.
• Effective project management skills with the ability to juggle competing priorities and timelines.
• Strong communication and stakeholder engagement abilities across multiple levels and functions.
• Analytical mindset with the ability to assess risks and impacts quickly and make informed decisions.
• Comfortable working in ambiguity with the ability to drive clarity and momentum.
• Flexibility to travel when required.

Personal Attributes

• Highly organized and proactive with strong planning and coordination skills.
• Collaborative, approachable, and able to build trust with cross-functional teams.
• Confident in decision-making and able to represent retail priorities in a complex program environment.
• Diplomatic and resilient, able to push back constructively and manage conflict where required.
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability for delivering results.
• Culturally aware and respectful of different working environments and practices.

Benefits

Primark is committed to your success and will provide an onboarding period in other U.S. trading areas. The company offers competitive benefits and work-life balance, recognizing the importance of life outside of work. As Primark expands globally, you will be given the tools needed to excel.

Pay

The pay range for this role is $121,840 - $150,000.

Schedule

This role is based in Boston and requires working 3 days a week in the office.